Jennifer Garrison

Jennifer Garrison (born April 2, 1962) is an American politician of the Democratic party from Marietta, Ohio. From 2005 to 2010 she represented the 93rd District in the Ohio House of Representatives, which includes Guernsey, Monroe and Noble counties, most of Washington County, and part of Muskingum County, all in southeast Ohio.
On August 3, 2009 Garrison announced her candidacy for the Democratic nomination for Ohio Secretary of State. Garrison withdrew from the Ohio Secretary of State race in January 2010. She resigned from the State House in November 2010 to take the position of Commissioner of the Ohio State Employment Relations Board. Her nomination, a recess appointment by outgoing Democratic Governor Ted Strickland, was rejected by the Republican-majority Ohio Senate less than a month later. She declared her candidacy for Ohio's 6th congressional district in the 2014 election on 12 July 2013.

Jennifer Garrison was born in Fort Thomas, Kentucky, the daughter of a union plumber. She earned a bachelor's degree in economics and business administration from Xavier University, and a law degree from Catholic University Law School in Washington, D.C. While in college, she worked as an intern for the Congressional Budget Office, and for the Ohio Department of Transportation and Ohio Department of Natural Resources as a legislative assistant in Washington.

Garrison then completed a judicial clerkship in Philadelphia and became a practicing attorney. She moved to Marietta in 1990, joining the law firm of McCauley, Webster & Emrick, where she became a partner in 1993. Three years later, she opened a private law practice, concentrating on family mediation. She ran the Washington County Visitation Mediation Project for seven years, providing free mediation to parents working out their custody and visitation conflicts. She has served on the boards of the domestic violence shelter EVE and the Washington County Mental Health & Alcohol Addiction Board, and as Commissioner on the Marietta Civil Service Board.

Garrison is licensed to practice law in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. She served as president of the Washington County, Ohio Bar Association from 1996 to 1997.

In 2004, Garrison unseated former twelve-day Ohio Gov. Nancy P. Hollister to win her seat with 51.6% of the vote. The campaign was highlighted by a sharp contrast between the candidates, with Garrison being to the right of Hollister on gay marriage, abortion rights and taxation. An Akron Beacon Journal editorial from November 2004 stated "she and her pals should be ashamed" for her attacks on Hollister over the gay marriage issue.

On the issue of gay marriage, Garrison criticized Hollister's opposition to the Ohio Defense of Marriage Act. On the issue of taxation, she criticized Hollister's vote for then-Governor Bob Taft's revenue plan. In 2009, she voted for a version of the biennial budget which was set to impose an 8-cent-per-ton tax on coal, which state officials projected would generate $446,000 a year, but the coal industry estimated would raise $1.8 million.

In 2006, Garrison was reelected with 71% of the vote against Republican challenger Donald J. Gadd, mayor of Byesville, Ohio. She served as Ranking Member of the Juvenile and Family Law Committee, and also sat on the Education, Public Utilities and Energy, and Finance and Appropriations Committees and the Primary and Secondary Education Subcommittee.

She won reelection in 2008 with 68% of the vote against Republican Wayne Smith.